World Men’s Curling Surprises in Vegas

Surprise results—and near-surprises—are coming early at the 2022 World Men’s Curling Championship in Las Vegas.

The key word is “early.”

A five-way tie for second place features teams not often seen at the top of the standings—like Finland, Germany and Italy—while traditional powerhouses Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland are languishing near the bottom of the scoreboard.

Brad Gushue’s Canada are the only undefeated team at 4-0, but continue to tangle with opponents in close games. The Dutch led Canada 2-0 and 5-2, after stealing a pair in the fifth end when Gushue’s draw picked up debris.

The Olympic bronze medallists then scored a deuce but could only watch as Holland skip Wouter Goesgens threw a tap for three—but missed, for a tied scoreline.

Goesgens was light on a draw facing three in the eighth end, and the Canadians went on to win 9-6.

Gushue and mates also trailed Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller 4-0 early on, but scored a massive four to tie the match in the fourth end. The Canadians took their first lead of the match in the sixth, retook the lead in the eighth and wound up 10-6 winners.

“We just tried to make shots,” said Gushue. “When you’re down 4-0 you just try to get the last rock and maybe you might get a mistake. We got a mistake early in the fourth end when he jammed, and that gave us a shot for four.”

Italy’s Joel Retornaz won his first game and it came against Olympic champion Niklas Edin of Sweden.

Italy held an early 2-0 lead until the third end, when Edin made a highlight reel triple raise for three.

In the eighth end, Edin played a double to force Italy into a short tap-back for a single point to tie the game at 6-6.

Needing two to tie, or three to win in the 10th, Italy played a perfect double takeout to score four for the 10-8 victory.

“Both teams had a tough start, we both struggled with the ice in the beginning,” said Retornaz. “So it was a bit of a rollercoaster, so we’re happy we managed to win this one.”

Germany won their second game thus far with an 8-3 win over hosts USA, who had defeated Czech Republic 7-5 earlier on Sunday.

American skip Korey Dropkin trailed 3-1 and 5-2 until the sixth end, where he came short on a draw to surrender a steal of two points.

Scotland fell to a surprising 1-2, joining Sweden and Switzerland, after Norway handed the Scots a 7-4 loss.